Picture Yourself Capturing Ghosts on Film

254 Pages·2009·8.662 MB·English

by  Christopher Balzano

Picture Yourself Capturing Ghosts © 2010 Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning.
on Film: Step-by-Step Instruction for
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To my little girl Ella.
You may have been born at the same time,
but you will always mean more to me than my work.
Acknowledgments
T
he best part of
the Paranormal Investigators of New England,
writing any “how-to”
Rob Conover of Conover Paranormal
book is that you eventually learn that you
Investigators, Gary Manley of Night Fall
don’t know everything. There have been
Paranormal, Tom Elliott of Boston Paranormal
teachers for me throughout this book, and I owe
Investigators, Luann Joly of Whaling City Ghosts,
them a thanks. I would especially like to thank
and Sheryl Vartanian. Special thanks to Jenna
Josh Mantello of the Berkshire Paranormal Group
McFarland-Lord for helping to start it all and
whose work and ideas inspired much of this
giving me a great picture of Elvis.
book. I would also like to thank Gene Lafferty
and Buckeye State Paranormal and Haunting
Investigators for giving me a perspective on None of this would have been possible without
ghost photography I would never have seen. the help of Megan Belanger and Jenny Davidson
from Cengage Learning. They both were there
to make suggestions and guide me through
I also extend my deepest gratitude to Andrew
those dark days of June and July. Of course, my
Lake of Greenville Paranormal for his great work
third editor and the little voice inside my head,
on the DVD that comes with this book. Under
Jeff Belanger, was vital in the development of
great stress and time constraints you pulled
the book and continues to provide me with sup-
through again. Thank you to the Fearing Tavern,
port and ideas.
the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, and the
students of Notre Dame High School for their
help on the DVD and the book. My thanks also go out to Mel and Louise Slater
for opening up their house and their pool to my
family so they could leave me alone in the house
Many investigators and paranormal photogra-
to write. I would also like to acknowledge the
phers contributed their opinions and pictures
help and support of my family. Thank you to
to the book. I’d like to acknowledge Ron Kolek
Devin and Ella for keeping me grounded and
of the New England Ghost Project, Matt Moniz
offering me the best distractions in the world.
and Tim Weisberg of Spooky Southcoast, Sabina
Besic, Jackie Masar, Allen Dunski of Wisconsin
Paranormal Investigators, Pat Martin, Jessica Lastly, I would like to thank my wife, Jill, for her
Stone, Robyne Marie of the Lights Out Radio patience and help while writing this book. Her
Show and Paranormal Investigating Group, sacrifice and level-headedness pushed me on
Michael Markowicz, Clarissa Vazquez of Colorado when I began to hit the wall.
Coalition of Paranormal Investigators, and Ericka
and Rick Benson of Blue Spirits Paranormal
Investigators, Spryng Benjamin, Jason Lorfice of
iv
About the Author
Christopher Balzano
Christopher is the author of several books about
is the founder and
regional hauntings, including Dark Woods: Cults,
director of Massachusetts Paranormal Crossroads,
Crime, and Paranormal in the Freetown State
an online collection of legends and ghost stories
Forestand Ghosts of the Bridgewater Triangle,
from Massachusetts and the surrounding states.
as well as the collection of true ghost stories,
He has been investigating the paranormal for
Ghostly Adventures, and the how-to paranormal
more than fifteen years and has been writing
book Picture Yourself Ghost Hunting. He has
about those experiences for the past ten. He has
appeared on radio stations in Massachusetts and
been a contributor to Jeff Belanger's
throughout the Internet, as well as being called
Encyclopedia of Haunted Placesand Weird
upon by television shows to comment on ghosts
Massachusettsand was one of the writers behind
and urban legends. He now runs the paranormal
Weird Hauntings. His writing has been featured
news from Ghostvillage, one of the oldest and
in Haunted Timesand Mystery Magazineand has
largest websites dedicated to the paranormal.
been covered by the Boston Globe, the Boston
Herald, the Standard Times, and Worcester
Magazine. Christopher is also the director of ParaRelations,
a public relations company servicing people in
the paranormal community.
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Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1
The Proof Is in the Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
I’m Here. I Really Am. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Best Evidence?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Changing Winds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The False Positive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Too Much Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Food for Thought Moving Forward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Intention Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Most Famous Barn in the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
It Takes a Village. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Ghost Eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
How to Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 2
Histories and Fakeries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Histories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Old Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Television Changes Everything. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Fakeries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
It’s a Simple Mistake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Teaching Through Deception. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Intentional Deception. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
vii
Chapter 3
The Why and the What . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Why. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Just Because It Is There. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Ranges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The What: The Major Suspects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Suspect: The Full-Bodied Apparition and the Ghostly Body Part. . 41
Suspect: Paranormal Smoke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Suspect: Ectoplasm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Suspect: Orbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Suspect: Streaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Suspect: Vortexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Suspect: Rods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Suspect: Shadows and Glowing Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The Unexpected among the Unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Picture Yourself Not Seeing a Ghost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Odd Pictures or Oddities in Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 4
Taking a Picture for Granted:
A Crash Course in How a Camera Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Camera 101 by Josh Mantello. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Mechanical Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Burning the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Importance of Your Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Shutter Speed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Other Troubles with Shutter Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
ISO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
F/stop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Flash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Other Special Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Autofocus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Best Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
viii
Table of Contents
Chapter 5
Finding What’s Best for You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Cameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Great Debate: Film or Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Best Camera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Some Deciding Factors on Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Moving Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Webcams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
IR Cameras and Nightvision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Connecting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Thermal Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
In the Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 6
Before You Hit the Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
The Equipment Equation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Know Your Landscape: The Right Tool for the Right Setting . . . . 100
Minimize the Old Mistakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The Forgotten Piece of Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Data Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Video and Recording Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
We Have Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Cords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Wrap Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 7
The Afterlife in the Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
You’re Halfway Out the Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
What Are You Trying to Do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Documentation vs. Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Getting in the Mindset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
ix